


Forceful Ties

by BrokePerception



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Drama, scifi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-10 21:39:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5602024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokePerception/pseuds/BrokePerception
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the complexity of Kylo Ren's past becomes a threat that had not been foreseen and bits and pieces begin to fall together, dark and light come to a fight that can be won or lost by neither. SPOILER ALERTS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**ATTENTION: "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" references**

* * *

Chapter 1

She saw her own hurt and sadness in the Wookiee's pain and great anger. Chewie's anger, fueled by the unfairness of it all, was immense and overwhelming, the sense of loss that clenched Leia's heart in a vice in a way that made her feel like it would never let go even more so. A part of her had always felt like there was an invisible thread of yearning and missing connecting them even after he walked away and she knew he would not return - - if so, at least not for a long time. A part of her had always hoped, maybe sort of known, that they would find each other again. She had been right. Unfortunately, that finding had been followed by a missing she didn't even know she could overcome. He would not come back this time. Han Solo had been a man of many talents and trades and had surprised her and others and undoubtedly himself on many occasions, but not even he could return from the dead.

A fragile and complex web of connectivity between them broken, like shattered glass that falls from great height, pieces flying in every direction, impossible to put back together remotely properly. A piece of herself pulled away from her, a part complementary to her own, conscious self. Since the second the lightsaber had struck him, it had felt like there were pieces of herself that she would never be able to reach into anymore without him. Han Solo had always pulled the worst and best in her to the surface. It had always been that way and now... wouldn't be anymore.

Her lips pulled together in a tight line as she looked up in the sky, a tear rolling unbidden over her cheek as she tried to hold onto a connection that had formed suddenly and not quite so suddenly at all. Newly founded. Newly rekindled. Had it had to have been rekindled, though, she wondered? Blinking before breathing deeply, she tried to believe, to have faith in her only daughter.

Rey had not been the girl's given name. Wrapping her arms around herself, Leia Organa was reminded of the feel of the man she had loved more than anything embracing her in better times, of her daughter holding onto her and the realization hitting her that one child had found her way back, accidentally driven by fate perhaps. From the first second that she laid eyes on the young girl, she had seen something in her gaze that had reminded her of something. Something she hadn't been able to point her finger on until much later. A glance shared with her lost husband had given her the feeling then and especially now that he, too, had seen it. Maybe they had both known it then already, but they had not dared to speak of it, too little evidence in a feeling shared to hope or to fear for the truth. The longer she thought about it now, the more convinced she was that Han, the father of her only daughter, had known who she was when her unconscious was still putting the pieces together, teasing at the veil covering the truth they had tried to hide.

It had been a hard decision to make, and after the decision had been made, they just hadn't been able to look at each other anymore, despite the fact that they had both known it was the best decision they could have made for the safety of Jaina. Her older brother had been too driven by the knowledge of what he was and could be at a very young age already. There had been a lot of self-doubt and self-blaming from both of his parents when Luke came to them and explained his concerns when he was but four, exposing the fears they had had for half of his lifetime already.

It had only been when Luke came to them the second time, years after that first time and after Ben clearly began to show his rebellious self, reminding of his power-driven grandfather and disappeared, that they had made the decision to provide safety for the rest of their family and decided to place little Jaina in the care of an uncommon folk, just too stupid to connect the pieces, too unkind to have provided the life she deserved, but kind enough to ensure she had nearly all that she needed and made sure that she still had a life to live.

She had known when she let her husband leave with their daughter that day, when he turned back that last time and smiled his crooked smile at her, that he, too, would move on to do what he had to do. She remembered it like the day before: a day marked by bright rays of sunshine but emotionally cast in one of the darkest hours she had ever experienced. She had kept hope somehow, from that point onwards, that he would return, maybe knowledge, but also the knowledge that it needed time, and Leia believed until that day that time healed and broke equally.

It was for a great part Han's departure, too, shortly after Ben decided that he could do better things with his might, that Luke had given up on the force entirely, leaving his sister with nothing but her rebellious self, lonely among many a rebel nonetheless, to fight against the dark side that had stolen her children, the man she loved, and her older brother, her best and most loyal of friends.

They had all gone back to what they were good at. If only they had done what they were best at when they had the chance, before their losses: putting the forces together. She would not be able to turn back time, would not just be able to undo what had been done anymore. The best she could do was rely on the best of Han and the best of her that resided in Rey.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"I know who you are," Luke Skywalker said in a monotone, certain tone. He had felt her more than seen her, felt the force that rippled within her the way it had to with all Jedi. He remembered the strength of the force within her from when she had been a young child. The signs had been there with her even before they had shown with Ben. All of them had mainly focused on him, no one quite concerned with the thought of the possibility of the force residing within a female. When Ben had been mostly focused on himself, he had overlooked what was happening right underneath his nose, and Luke knew that that was probably the only reason why they had managed to get her away to safety and why his niece was still alive and relatively well, or so he thought he could see.

Rey's forehead crinkled together in a frown as she let the words sink in. She wondered how anyone would know her, for she was but a scrapper, and a poor one at that as well, on Jakku - one of many. It was she who knew him from stories and legends and myths that had proven to be true, unless she was not currently standing before the son of Darth Vader, the one who had slain the evil himself and pushed it back down, at least until the First Order came.

Luke's analysis of her expression proved to be accurate. "I don't doubt that you have heard all the stories about me and how much of a hero I am supposed to be. I don't doubt you have high expectations." The old man shook his head. How the stories had been blown up and how they portrayed him as a hero while he had only done what he had to do at the time. "It may have belonged to me once upon a time, before the First Order gained he who calls himself Kylo Ren now, and with it incredulous power, but it is ludicrous that you would extend that light saber to me when your commandment of the force is that strong - stronger than it ever was with me. I will admit not to have expected to ever see it in a female, but if it could be, it would be in Leia's daughter."

The girl shook her head at the incredulousness of the words spoken to her, and the light saber faltered in her hand and lowered as she seemed to grasp what had just been said. "Leia's daughter?" she repeated.

Luke Skywalker cast his gaze before raising it back up to her. She didn't know who she was. "What is your name, you say?" he asked.

"Rey. R-E-Y," she spelled.

A small smile came across thin lips. He hadn't allowed himself this pleasure since leaving his sister behind with the resistance after what he saw as the biggest failure on his part: not being able to keep his nephew away from the pull of the dark and keeping him in the light. He knew that Leia nor Han would ever blame him, but he blamed himself enough for all of them together. It was strange how just feeling the strength of the force within her, even from across several feet in-between them, could create small space for feelings of hope. He never could have expected Jaina to turn into this. "Your name is not Rey," he spoke. "Your name is Jaina Solo."

Before Rey could respond, Chewbacca's particular type of speech resounded, along with the beeping of BB-8 and both of them turned to look at the source of the sound. Before either of them could say or do anything, the Whookiee ran forward and basically threw himself on Luke, who barely managed to stay upright as he was forced into a bone-crushing hug. Despite the fact that he was incredibly trustworthy and usually kept his promises, his loyalty dared to trick him into breaking them if for one second he believed someone was in danger. His fear that something would have happened to Rey had won from his promise to let her do this on her own.

Before long, Chewie decided that he had endangered Luke's life enough with his hug and stepped back, began to point and grunt in a way that the Jedi seemed to understand. He cast his gaze on Rey. "Han Solo is gone?" he asked for confirmation from her despite the fact that Chewbacca's desperate whining and nodding spoke volumes. The old man's expression looked shocked and pained, his face fallen. He slowly lowered himself on the dry rock underneath him and sat staring at the dust waving away by the soft breeze of wind.

Rey nodded slowly as she calmly walked up to him and sat beside him. "Yes. He was killed by Kylo Ren as he tried to convince him to come back to the light. The First Order is gaining more and more force, becoming more and more destructive. Very soon, there will be nothing left if we don't do anything. The General ensured to me that your help was needed, so I am here to ask you to come back with me and help us fight this evil. We can't do it on our own."

Luke's eyes flicked to Chewie's face and back to his niece's as the Whookiee gave a grunt that sounded like a cheer of agreement. "It is not as simple as all that," he spoke. "If it had been as simple, your parents wouldn't have had to send you away and you would know who you are. You would have lead an entirely different life."

"Hold on. You knew my parents?"

"Yes," Luke Skywalker confirmed. "I knew them, knew you. I also knew your brother before he was hauled in by the First Order and he began to wear that mask and call himself Kylo Ren."

Rey felt blood rush in her eardrums at those words. "What?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Leia Organa, the General, pulled back from the hug with her brother and cast her gaze upon Rey as she noted the confused and heartbroken expression within those brown eyes. She wanted to hold her the way they had after the death of the man she loved, but she didn't know if it would be warranted, if her suspicions were right. "He told you, didn't he?" she asked, but it was Luke who nodded and responded to the question, Rey too lost in her thoughts to get any input in her racing mind.

"I did. You can't expect to win this war without informing your daughter of who and what she is, as I have a feeling that she will play as much of a key role as you," the old man spoke, casting his gaze upon his niece and the lost yet determined expression on her face. "She also deserves to know, after all those years on Jakku, away from the life she could have had that was stolen from her by the actions of her brother after mistakes on my part. She has had to live her life in a lie for far too long now."

Holding onto her brother's gaze a few more seconds, Leia Organa finally dared to blink and cast her eyes upon Rey. She nodded. "Let's go inside. We have much to tell you."

Turning, the General set off for her quiet quarters, not a word spoken among those following her. Luke and Rey, Chewie and BB-8, followed her in silence.

Without words, everyone took a seat in the quiet, semi-dark room, one where they felt most comfortable and that allowed for space yet enabled them to speak openly about the things that had to be said. When the silence was not broken by anyone, Leia at last took a deep breath and turned to the young girl seated across from her at the large, oval table.

"I never intended for it turn the way it did. Please believe me," she spoke. "Your father and I danced around each other for several years before finally deciding to get married. I will admit that that decision was fueled by us discovering that Ben was on his way. We always loved each other, but, as I am sure you can imagine from the short while you knew him, your father was a free soul and was not ready to 'settle down'. Ben being on the way made him realize that maybe it was not such a disaster to get married. It is a comfort to me to know he died representing the two things he stood for: justice and his family. One would never have been able to get the adventure and the need for action from his soul, but he was always a great father."

Swallowing, the old woman pushed back the tears she felt welling up in her eyes, making them appear glazed as the lower rim of her eyes held small rivers of tears she didn't know she would be able to stop once they started. "Ben was an intelligent and promising child, and from when he was very young, he showed an interest in what his uncle did, learned about the Sith and the Jedi, and also showed a fair bit of aptitude to control the force. Unfortunately, we were not the only ones who saw that."

"What did that have to do with me?" Rey spoke up when it remained silent after that, Leia reminiscing that time of her life and how the pride had turned into fear after discovering the sort of people who had approached her son just a little too late.

Luke Skywalker, seeing the state of his sister, reached for her clasped hands in her lap and squeezed the top one, taking the answering upon himself. "We tried very hard to hold him back, but the First Order had already meddled with his brain so much that it was impossible to get through to him. I think we all still hope but also sort of know that there is something good in him," Luke started, blinking to his sister for confirmation that she felt the same in a small, short nod, "but it is hidden somewhere deep, and we didn't discover how to get to it in time, before he rebelled and chose the First Order over his family, power over control. He was just fourteen when he turned his back to us and wanted nothing more to do with 'the weak who seek to control what is meant to lead to power'. Those were the words he spoke, but they were not his. We knew that with Ben among them, the First Order had gained what they had desperately wanted for years."

A grunt from the corner coming from Chewbacca pulled everyone's attention to him temporarily, and it was clear in the way he had his head cast down and the solemn expression on his face that he remembered the despair from then all too well, and the loss, the fear, the sadness. The General's voice, soft and full of pain from losses then and now, resounded, continuing. "Ben made sure to tell us how much he hated us for having forced him to control his power, the thing that could have made him greater than anyone, and he made threats that implied that the First Order would look for us first. We knew there was truth in them. You were so young and innocent still and couldn't risk anything happening to you. We made for this system first before we decided that your father would bring you to safety. I never saw him again until the two of you popped up again. It is strange how you left together and came back together. I recognized you by feel rather than appearance. You have grown into such beautiful and astounding young woman."

Rey swallowed, not quite knowing how to respond to the words spoken or the love clearly emanating from her mother's eyes, nor the foreign feeling of love she felt herself for the woman sitting across from her right that second. "Why did he never come after me? Or did he?"

"I am not sure if he tried, but I am sure that he tried harder to get to us than to get to his sister," Luke spoke, drawing Rey's attention to him. "I don't believe he ever realized that you could be a danger to him. I think he always made the mistake to think himself supreme to you."

"I am a potential danger to him?"

"Yes," Leia and Luke spoke in unison.

"I doubt he, too, realized who you were until he recognized the force within you. If he doesn't know who you are now, he will discover very soon, with or without help from others in the First Order," Luke spoke. "He won't put up with a sibling, least of all a female, controlling the force with an ease he has never known the same way. He will want to do everything to eviscerate you now. It is the approach towards the force that makes you stronger. You look at it from a control perspective, letting the force use you, while he wants to use the force. Therein lies his biggest mistake - his and the entire First Order's. They don't understand the Force, and I doubt that they ever will."

Nodding slowly, Rey let her mind process the information she had just received. It was quiet for a long time, not even Chewbacca or BB-8 letting their presence be known, which was unusual for both of them. "Were you ever planning to get me back?" Rey whispered.

"As soon as we believed you would be safe, yes," Leia whispered, sincerity lacing her words and the look in your eyes. "You were a conscious decision for us, and you were very welcome. Having to let you go to protect you felt like the only right decision, even if it was harder than most things I've ever had to do or that have ever been forced on me."

The silence was deafening following that statement from the General, Chewie's low miserable grunts barely scraping the surface of the emotional tension that hung in the air between the brought-together family members.

Casting her gaze up and looking from her mother to her uncle, the two saw the girl's face harden with determination, apparently having had enough time to process what had to be processed. Leia's heart ached as it reminded them both of Han Solo. "How do we stop the First Order and get my brother back?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The mask lay long forgotten beside him as the tall man sat with his head in his hands at the table, the most impressive of few pieces of furniture in the dark room that he found himself alone in often lately. He had taken the mask off as soon as he had felt the solitude of the room where he knew few would disrupt or bother him after the conversation with Supreme Leader Snoke. Snoke had not been happy with the turn of events, and he was least pleased with Kylo Ren's actions. In that moment, however, he was more, felt more, like Ben Solo than he did like his adopted name and persona than he had been and had felt in a long time - potentially since he decided to leave all he had ever known in the fight for power. Anyone else seeing him right then would have said he was just a boy, no matter how desperately he tried to be a man.

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly against the warm sweatiness of his palms as memories and flashbacks raced through his brain. He saw the last crooked smile of his father, the same one as the one he saw if ever he smiled - something he hadn't done in a long time - then the expression morph in an open-mouthed grimace. He felt the small shock in his wrist as the lightsaber struck through a human body, the body of his father, again. Grasping his wrist with his other hand roughly, he tried to control the shaking he felt in it until his knuckles turned white, effort rendering useless as he felt it more in his mind than his physique. Feeling his cheeks tingling darker with effort to suppress emotional and physical memories of his father's murder, he at last slammed his shaking hand down flat on the table to try and still it, slamming his head down on it repetitively, needing to feel numb, needing the feelings, the emotions, to go away. He tried his best not to think of Han Solo as his father, but his mind was playing tricks on him. The harder he tried to push it away, the more persistent the memories from another lifetime came, where Han Solo had taught him how to walk and talk with his proud mother by his side, the words 'Daddy' falling from his lips so that Ben could repeat after him, connecting the sound with the person and the words in his head.

"I can't be weak!" he screamed at the thin air, barely hearing the echo of his angry voice bounce off the walls before it was deathly quiet again.

Supreme Leader Snoke had made it quite clear that weak was the exact word the First Order used to describe him after hearing that he had had to let his younger sister win the fight for the force in the forest. The fact that he had killed his own father with a trick and a lie in cold blood did nothing to change everyone's opinions about Kylo Ren. His stomach still hadn't un-sunken from the meeting an hour earlier, during which Snoke told him that he was a stupid fool, to let a girl get the better of him, and most of all for not realizing that the woman he had fought was his own, long-lost younger sister - the one he hadn't realized carried the force just like him - the one he hadn't killed when he should have, before she grew as strong as she was now.

Hearing that the woman had been his sister had sparked a momentary overwhelming urge of feeling, and when he wasn't thinking about his father and about said man's last moments, his mind ran through childhood memories of himself with Jaina. Jaina sitting beside him, playing with tiny pieces of scrap metal and saying his name repetitively, as if it was the most fun thing to say in the world. Jaina running after him on short legs as he played ball with his little friends. Jaina whacking books against his head without even touching them as she sat on the opposite side of the giant book shelf they had had in their library. It was only now that he realized, after Snoke's explanation - although it had been more of a reprimand than anything else - that it must have been the force she played with and commanded in her own way as a small child, rather than her pushing against the side of the bookcase as he had described it to back then. How could he have been so stupid? How could a female have managed to take control of the force better without him noticing it? He had never thought she would be a danger to him or his power.

Ever having been a bit of a pretentious know-it-all, his brain meddled with by the First Order, the thought of Jaina having become stronger than him with little to no training made him more angry than ever, his dark round pupils gaining a red glow in the dark.

Kylo Ren finally blinked up and cast his gaze aside, letting it fall on the mask past his own. Getting up, he walked over to the only remainder of his grandfather, the powerful Darth Vader. Pressing his hands against the burnt remains, he whispered, "Please give me the power to show those who need who is strongest, grandfather."

Curtly turning his face aside, he extended one of his hands and forced the force to pull at the surrounding air beside the mask that was his, pulled it, reeled it in until it rested in his palm _. 'Kill Leia. Kill Jaina.'_ That is what the Supreme Leader had asked of him, and that is what he would do, he said to himself as his face hardened and he strode from the room with confidence.

If only he had properly realized what he had requested from his ancestor.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"The First Order Stormtroopers on their own are not a danger to us or anyone, I believe," Luke spoke, with a brief little glance upon Finn, who nodded, to confirm, before continuing, "We'll get the upper hand basically as soon as we can all get rid of Snoke and his most immediate commanders, who are all waiting for their moment of glory as soon as the Supreme Leader is gone."

"Phasma. Hux," the former Stormtrooper began. "They are just as power hungry as Snoke; they only nod yes now just so they can wait for the right moment."

"Ben is one of them as well," Leia spoke in a soft tone that pulled at the heartstrings of the people in the room. It spoke of her loss, her pain. The strong General sounded so fragile now, despite the fact that her expression was fierce and didn't hint at the feelings bottled up behind her voice, behind the strong exterior she put up for her people.

It remained quiet for a full minute, not a droid, Whookiee or human sound to be heard, until Poe finally spoke, "I grew up with Ben. I will never believe that his heart has grown cold and there is nothing of the old him left anymore. There's got to be a way. We've got to be able to find a way to give him a chance to come home."

"His father gave him that chance and died because of it. He refused to take the hand and the help behind it that was extended to him," Rey said, her voice bitter in her throat. She spoke solely of Han Solo as his father, not her own, but despite the fact that she tried hard to keep it like that in her mind, too, she felt the same sort of loss in her heart that had rendered her mother's voice fragile. The same went for seeing Leia as her mother. She had processed the information, but she hadn't at all gotten used to it, and she doubted she would anytime soon. How could one deal with that sort of information and grow accustomed to it when there was basically a mark for killing on their head? There was simply no time to properly make her mind up about what she was going to do with the information and how it was going to affect her future, if at all.

Chewie's grunts of anger and pain resounded through the room, R2-D2 and BB-8 beeping in unison as they conveyed their feelings about the end of Han Solo without words, in their own languages.

"All nice and well, but how do we put this plan in action?" Finn questioned.

"Well, as long as they don't know where we're located, we have to keep it that way, and that means that we'll have to get to them instead," Poe contributed, "but if we attack them in their base, they are at a big advantage versus us. They know their ways around their environment, have access to weapons, and they will definitely be in the majority there. We've got a pretty strong resistance group, but only a select group can go. It would only work if we use the force to our advantage in a climate where their other advantages are eliminated."

"What if-?" Finn began.

Rey, however, interrupted him before he could even begin to think about the formulation of the option he thought he was seeing. "Use me as bait and strike when you can. It will work."

In response to her suggestion, as brave as it was, two people responded with a one word answer immediately - Finn and her mother. The latter's face showed a mixture of anger and shock, fear and determination. The authoritative, rarely heard, edge to her voice brought many people's faces up to hers, including her daredevil daughter's.

Rey looked into the older woman's eyes without blinking for several seconds before turning her gaze to her uncle, who had been surprisingly quiet during the meeting they had called together. Maybe she had different expectations of Luke Skywalker after the stories featuring him with which she had grown up, but despite not knowing him well or at all, she felt that there was a reason why he was so quiet. She could swear she saw the cog wheels turn in his head behind his slightly squinted eyes, giving him a pensive look to the perceptive onlooker. "What's your opinion?"

"I believe that it is a legit suggestion," Luke admitted without averting his eyes from the point in the distance he had been staring at for the past few minutes.

"I can't believe this! You're supporting her?" Leia sounded.

Blinking at last, Luke turned his gaze sideways and regarded his twin sister. He couldn't say that he quite understood her predicament, as he had never been a father, but he loved Rey close to as much as she did, had suffered nearly as much as she had when Ben turned to the dark side and they had to give his niece up to give her the best chances at survival. "We have to take any chance we have to play this in our advantage. Jaina is the key to all of this, and you know it well."

Silence ruled them once again; everyone in the room considering the heavy suggestion that had been made by the one who would sacrifice herself. Caluan Ematt, who had been relatively quiet so far as well, was the one to break it with the words, "If we go for that option, we can take precautions to try and protect her as well as we can with all the means that we have. We can send the best of our team with her."

Mother and daughter stared at each other, and as the same browns clashed with each other, it felt as if the entire room and everyone around them disappeared. The air between them became electric, and all of those feelings of the past years bubbled up to the surface - anger, fear, heartache, regret - and questions how and why they had done the things they had done and it had happened that way.

The brown eyes were not the only things they had in common. If anyone had thought that Han Solo was stubborn, they clearly hadn't met Leia yet, and Rey had, unfortunately or not, inherited that trait from her. As the General of the Resistance eyed her long-lost daughter, she felt her heart clench. She still had those tiny little things about her that reminded her of the man she had loved more than anything. One of the things she had inherited from her father, Leia had quickly discovered, was her need for adventure and to be part of things even if it meant realistic danger. Like with her husband, she knew she wouldn't be able to keep her back. The only thing she could do was ensure that when she went through with the plan, because she would with or without her consent, that she had a few loyal allies with her to protect her from harm.

Leia looked up at Finn and Poe. Without question, she knew they would go even without her asking, and she knew they would give their lives for her... just the way she would if it came to it. "We have to prepare ourselves the best we can for every possible kind of attack to give her the best chances at survival. I am also coming with you."

Protest and disagreement sounded from all corners at that, Chewbacca sounding particularly loud and angry. The General herself couldn't put herself in direct harm's way. The Princess did not belong away from the base. Others would protect Rey with their own lives. She didn't have to come with them.

"Those are my conditions," Leia spoke. "If anyone has another suggestion, let's hear it. I would honestly prefer any option that doesn't put my daughter's life in immediate danger."

Rey swallowed visibly at the words spoken by her mother before she softly spoke, "I will take the Millennium Falcon. I feel like its speed and the way I am used to it will play in our advantage on top of its recognizability."

"That sounds like a plan," Luke answered, putting a hand on his sister's shoulder and squeezing gently. The action didn't go unnoticed by Rey, nor the look in her mother's eyes that made her both want to turn back from the decision and rush into it full force as well.

Leia looked at Caluan curtly, gathering courage. "Let's prepare then."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Leia pulled her daughter aside, taking her wrist and holding her back just before she would climb into the spaceship after Chewie and the six most-trained Resistance members that had been selected by Caluan to protect her. A duo in a smaller but fast spaceship had been selected to follow them in case the Millenium Falcon got damaged beyond repair – the mere thought of her father's ship not making the confrontation had devastated Rey. Finn and Luke, meanwhile, would take it upon themselves to go to the source and go for the Supreme Leader himself, Poe following behind them separately. They had thought long and hard about who would go for which goal, but it had seemed best for Rey to draw the more power-hungry away from the base and give her the best defense while the quicker and more knowledgeable went for the core as everyone's attention was elsewhere. It was too important that they be able to challenge Phasma and Hux and eventually (or sooner) Ben at the same time as the Supreme Leader. It would be the only way to make the First Order fall.

The General's brown eyes roved over the younger girl's face, noting no fear in her expression but only determination. She was so much like her father. The hints of it that had been there before they had decided to give her up had blossomed and come to their full glory.

"I know you don't want to hear it right now. I know you're angry for the decisions we made in order to try and protect you, but please don't let that anger lead you into death," the older woman whispered in a raspy voice. She doubted that the pig-headed girl would pay as much attention to the words as she wished she would, but she could still try.

Opening her mouth for easy rebuttal, to release the words that implied that she had had to deal with everything on her own already and this wasn't something she wasn't used to, Jaina Solo changed her mind at the last second, as she saw the woman who was her mother's face before her and read the pain and fear in her expression. Taking a leap of faith, the untrained Jedi gently pulled her wrist free from the General's grasp only to squeeze the older hand with her own. Briefly, she saw disappointment and grief flash through the eyes she had inherited as Leia thought she would pull away without more. "I promise I'll be careful," she whispered, holding her mother's gaze a moment longer before turning around and climbing into the spaceship. Leia glanced at her base one last time before following her, hoping by all means that they would all be able to come back there unscathed. She had little hope for that lucky outcome, though.

Maneuvering the spaceship away from the hidden base, Rey set off for a small journey around space and the star systems within it. They had decided at the Resistance's base that they would fly around for a maximum of two hours before returning if no attack came. They all knew that an attack would come as soon as the First Order realized their presence. The Millennium Falcon was too recognizable and too much of a desired target. The uncertainty of what was going to happen was tangible in the cockpit of the spaceship, though. Swallowing, Rey kept her eyes straight ahead, her hands slightly shaky on the steering system. She could feel her heart beat slam against her ribcage, brown eyes sliding over the clear black around them, not a hint of an enemy ship to be seen. "How do you think they would attack?" she asked in general without taking her eyes off of her path.

The other people in the cockpit remained quiet, the Whookiee merely shrugging and grumbling mostly to himself and the General not speaking for several minutes either, until at last, she said, "I couldn't tell you. I expect it will be one of two ways, one more likely than the other. They will either bombard us and take the Falcon down and try to kill us as fast as possible, in the air or not, or they will try to keep us alive for as long as we can provide information. I am placing my bet on the latter. They will want to know why an untrained girl can master the Force better than a trained, runaway Jedi. I don't believe they would just let it pass without wanting the information or without attempting to lure you into joining their side."

Blinking to the side at her mother, noting the forlorn expression in her eyes as she undoubtedly thought about the son she lost to the dark side, Rey spoke, ever so gently, "I will not be joining them, too."

"I know." A small bout of uncertainty laced those words still.

"I–" Rey started, but she never got the chance to finish her sentence.

A flash of red was visible a millisecond before the sound of a laser shot slamming into the back of the Falcon resounded and Rey felt the spaceship swerve off course at the impact, alarms and bleeps and lights on the dashboard ringing and flashing as the ship announced danger. She heard the rest of the passengers stumble and yell in the back of the ship, Chewie's rumbling screams louder than anyone, especially as the second laser shot impacted just before she managed to take charge of the steering again and evade more damage.

"Fuck!"

It felt as if the ship hung still in space for a moment before they felt themselves fall, faster, faster. Rey tried to do her very best to stop them from falling, terrified and certainly not so sure that this had been the best decision but rather the one that would get them all killed. It was as if they had expected this, had been prepared. She felt not so certain about her mother's words anymore. This seemed like they wanted to get them killed rather than take them captive.

Through the window, she noted the others' ship falling even faster than the Millennium Falcon, part of it burning in space as it made to crash and kill the people inside. They would never make it alive, she thought. Her heart racing as she began to lose faith in her own abilities to save them, she saw a giant explosion before she saw the ship containing members of the Resistance meant to tail them slam down into the uneven surface of the star they had landed on, and then the enemy ship that had attacked her. They had damaged each other too much for a chance of survival, and she felt a pang of guilt and heartache at the loss of the people whose names she barely knew even in all her panic as the spaceships, crashed feet apart only, caught fire.

Meanwhile, they kept falling and falling and falling, and she tried to do her best to focus on making sure they would not serve the same fate. The surface began to come incredibly close, and it was only just in time that she managed to hit the right buttons to slow their fall and minimize the impact of the crash. She doubted they had attacked with the hope of keeping anyone alive. This was for death. The buttons were pushed just too late to stop the impact entirely, though, and the Millennium Falcon crashed with a giant screeching sound, shaking them all inside. Rey's head slammed against the dashboard, and she saw her mother's face as she briefly glanced sideways. She fought against the darkness that made reality dissolve, but lost consciousness with explosions banging around her.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Blinking her eyes open slowly, Rey’s vision was filled with bright light. Squeezing her eyes shut again and trying to correct her earlier mistake by looking from under her eyelids only barely, she let herself adjust to the brightness of the room. As the seconds ticked by, the brightness seemed to diminish as her pupils shrunk and she thought she could open her eyes fully without the risk of going blind, she slid them further open and faced a halogen white TL light overhead. Blinking once more, she turned her gaze to the side ever so slowly, the movement causing her neck muscles to pull and her to wonder how she had hurt herself.

She tried to come up with the reason why, but her mind couldn’t come up with anything. As she tried to connect the pieces, the thought seemed to slide down in a dark tunnel and never appear again, scattering somewhere she couldn’t see. The room consisted of only four blank walls, like a cell, and trying to lift her head and looking down upon herself, she noticed she was tied to an old metal bed frame, no mattress, by her ankles and chest, thighs and wrists. She tried to twist her wrists for some form of movement, but no go.

She had an idea who was responsible for this, her mind told her as the memories of what had happened to get her there came back to her. She remembered the other spaceship crashing down after attack of the First Order’s, having hit the enemy just in time to ensure their downfall as well. She remembered the face of her mother beside her as they crashed, significantly more softly than the others, but still too hard for them to have stayed conscious apparently.

“Hello?” Rey called. Her own voiced bounced off of the cold walls and echoed back at her, but nothing else happened. Of course they had been smart enough to put her in a completely empty room, where she couldn’t use the force to help her. “Fuck,” she mouthed, letting her head fall back against the harsh iron springs, wondering where the rest of her ‘crew’ was and if they were okay, like her mother. She felt the way her head pounded still, a throbbing headache reminding her of the hefty fall she had made in the Millennium Falcon. It felt as if someone had tried to put hundreds of elastic bands around her head, nearly forcing it to split in two. The pounding headache and her loneliness brought her back to unconsciousness soon.

It was only when she heard the sound of the door to her cell open and close and heavy but slow footfalls resound, much louder than they would have in a remotely dressed room, that she gained her consciousness back. She didn’t know how long it was since she first woke up and fell asleep again. It could have been minutes or days. Ever having been a light sleeper, headache or not, Rey’s eyes shot open to the sound and fell, unconsciously remembering not to look right up from earlier, upon a dark masked figure she had seen before. She had known.

“You,” she spat, the hoarseness and weakness of her voice taking away from the anger within it.

Kylo Ren did not respond. Instead, he remained halted but two feet from where she was tied to the bed and reached up without still saying another word with both of his black gloved hands, taking away the mask that hid his true self from her. “Hello, little sister,” he spoke.

Rey felt her breath catch in her throat as she took in the youthful face of her brother from so up close, the anger and mocking in his eyes and the smirk upon his lips that seemed more comfortable squeezing together in a tight line as he scowled, and she heard his voice from so close, so unfamiliar. She swallowed the many questions she wanted to fire at him and the anger and fire she wanted to spew at him since watching him murder their father and discovering they apparently shared a set of parents. “Mind me if I don’t greet you as if you’re a relation of mine,” Rey responded harshly.

Ben sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, didn’t seem to release it. “Believe me, the fact that we’re siblings couldn’t give you any more grief than it does me right now. I know how your General has a way with words and how she make the ‘light’ as she calls it seem like such a great option, just like that old fool, even now.”

Despite the fact that Rey still had to call her mother by her relation to her, still even had to think of her that way, it strangely upset her to hear Ben talk about her as if she was nothing to him. She assumed that the old fool he meant was to be their uncle. Rey wondered where he was, and where Finn and Poe were and if they had been successful or they had been boycotted by the First Order. The plan had been rash and impulsive, but they had all thought that regardless of the quickness with which they had pushed its execution, it had had a chance for success. “Is our mother here as well? She’s alive?”

Ben snorted, sitting down on the side of the bed frame upon which she was tied and regarding her as if she was just a stupid little child. Part of her was made angry by his clear pretense, another part of her felt very small in his presence. “Oh, yes,  _our mother_  is here, and she is alive… for now. The only reason why I am keeping it that way is so that she can watch as I execute my plan with you, as she so desperately seemed to want to be a part of it all.”

Anger boiled under the surface of Rey’s skin as she sucked in Kylo Ren’s words and thought of the words that had been spoken before they set off for this mission: the First Order would try to win her for them, would kill her only if she proved to be impossible to convert, or so they had said. 

Seeming to catch on on her train of thought, Ben looked her straight in the eye. “There is no light or dark,” he said. “The world is only divided in those who don’t possess any power over the Force and the ones who do but are too scared to take control, and those who do possess the Force and have the strength to use it in the way it is meant to be. Our parents raised us to be afraid of something that is an honor to possess, an honor to control. When I broke free from their confines and joined those who taught me to use the force, they saw dumping you as the only way to keep you in their power, by letting you go and taking away your heritance and the knowledge that was to come to you, not even giving you the chance to see the truth for yourself. I believe that they mustn’t have been all too convinced of the value of the ‘light’ if they would rather have no daughter at all than showing her.”

Rey shook her head, the words he spoke cutting deep. They had left her behind, had dumped her in a place where she had had a terrible youth, no idea who she was or what she could be. In that moment, it was hard to see him as Kylo Ren, rather than an innocent young man.

Staring at him, she dug up vague recollections of her early childhood, of how she thought he might have been as a young boy, but there was no indication for her that the images she saw running though her mind’s eye were truly him. The more she tried to focus on those flashes, tried to run after them in her mind, the faster they flew away, gone seemingly forever again. Had her father been a weak man? She wondered. She had never had a chance to know him or discover what kind of person he was to be able to tell for sure.

“You possess control over the Force that no other female has ever had,” Ben spoke, and it seemed as if he was thinking aloud, heaving himself upright and walking around the room. “I think with proper, unlimited training, you would see the goal we are striving towards. You would see that what we’re trying to do is the only logical option for the continuance of the Force as it should be ruled.”

Rey’s eyes connected with her brother’s then, and the thought stopped fuzzing around in her head for the first time since she had woken up here. “Will you teach me what I’ve missed?”


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Feeling the energetic field around her as she concentrated with her eyes closed, it was the first time she felt the immensity of the Force run through her body. It felt as if everything else around her was gone and she was alone with the Force, running through her, around her. She managed to hold onto the strength of it for but a moment longer, though, before it broke away and her eyes shot open. Ben’s smirk was the first that she saw. She followed his gaze as it flickered away to the remnants of their grandfather’s last mask, her eyes staying there as he spoke. “I believe that you and I can make great things happen together, if you want to go for it and overcome weakness. Phasma was just an example of someone who didn’t truly believe in it, and that lead to her weakness, her death deserved.”

Rey pulled her gaze away from the mask that their grandfather had worn for most of his life. “There is so much I don’t know,” she whispered, looking down upon her hands and letting her eyes trace the reddish marks of where Ben’s bounds had been. He had been sceptic of her request to show her everything and had only untied her after a few silent moments, leaving her wrists bound in case she might want to try something and wasn’t sincere, until they set foot in the room they were now, where he seemed to feel more powerful, less likely to be overturned in case she was fooling him. “All the things I learned about Luke Skywalker and the fight against Darth Vader, I learned through retold stories. I will never know what really happened, only the watered-down versions of it all through other people’s mouths.”

As Kylo Ren opened his mouth, they both heard a loud bang coming from further down the hallway, its exact location or cause unknown but the mere strength of the impact alarming enough. His eyes shot to Rey, fleetingly to the ties that he had bound her wrists with, then back at her as he tried to decide whether or not she could be trusted or if he should tie her up again. Snatching his mask from the table and sliding it over his face, he made for the door, having decided. “Follow me,” he commanded with a look over his shoulder, Rey running after him as he forced the door to open with a simple hand movement and strode, nearly ran, off down the hallway in the direction of where he thought he had heard the noise.

Rey worked hard to try and keep up with him, becoming breathless as they followed the group of Stormtroopers marching quickly towards the door at the end of the hallway, beside the one where she had been kept locked up. She heard a rumbling sound come from beside her, filled with rage and anger. She guessed she would soon know where the anger came from. She saw the opened door as they reached the hallway, saw the emptiness of the room a second after her brother as she moved to look past him.

“Damn it.” Turning around with his long dark cape flying, he screamed at the group of Stormtroopers that had gathered and stood watching at the empty room with their weapons drawn but otherwise unmoving, not knowing what to do and just staring stupidly. “What happened? How did she get away?” he demanded to know, not waiting for an answer as he began to stride towards what Rey later knew to be the control room of the base.

When they turned the corner, their eyes fell immediately on the shivering mass on the floor, barely holding himself upright against the wall and holding one of his hands over his chest. They quickened their movements until they were a foot away from General Hux, where Ben knelt down. Rey didn’t. From where she stood beside her brother, she saw the blood streaming down between the pale man’s fingers and already knew he would probably not make it.

“They… had a plan,” General Hux spoke in the weak, groggy voice of a man on his death bed, gathering his last few gulps of air to say what needed to be said, as he died to protect his beliefs. “They tricked us… The Supreme Leader is dead. They will let the Senate know the facts. They released the General.”

Throwing a quick glance upon his sister and getting to his feet, Kylo Ren set off to continue his way to the control room, leaving Hux to die on his own.

Ripping her gaze away from the fatally wounded man’s paling face and the death that swam in and clouded his eyes, Rey continued to run after him, nearly having to jog now to be able to keep up. As she stayed in his shadow, the pieces fell together and she realized that Leia had been cooped up in the room beside hers the entire time that she had been locked up as well. Finn and Poe must have made it and succeeded, as must Luke have. Phasma had been killed by her own fellows because she had proven to be too weak for their wishes, and Hux had been fatally injured by one of the Resistance present in the First Order base. Supreme Leader Snoke was dead. The only one left in the way of the Resistance was Ben. If he failed, too, the First Order would be unbound.

Rey felt her blood rush through her system, her heart beat pounding hard and consistently in her temple as all of the realizations hit her, about the complexity of the situation and the opposition and about their plans and how they had used Ben and what kind of person Ben truly must be. The cogs worked in her head and she was so involved in it that she nearly bumped into Kylo Ren’s back as he came to a sudden halt.

“You won’t get away with this. You will never get the First Order down,” a deep and angry voice sounded before the whoosh of a lightsaber unscathed filled the air and Rey nearly had to squint against the red glow of it in the relatively dark control room, and she saw flashes of her mother and of Luke, immediately wondered where Finn and Poe were with her heart racing.

An insanely strong headache hit her then, and she grasped for her forehead and slammed her eyes shut as the Force pulled back and forth inside and around her, oblivious to what was happening around her, caught in her own world as light and dark, belief and knowledge, hope and trust, battled with each other. Darkness overcame her and it felt that she was swirling in space without any way of survival. Seconds ticked by and sounds penetrated her mind and a unfamiliar scream pierced through as she fought against the pain and the war inside her, the sounds outside her head first becoming louder than softer and louder again as she battled against her own mind, finally forcing her eyes open to the sight of Luke heaving and shaking in a corner, clutching his side. Blurry eyes travelled further to the dark figure with the red glowing lightsaber standing feet away from their shared mother, and she realized she was slumped on the floor by the entrance, Ben having left her there without hesitation.

Crawling to her hands and knees, she felt her stomach heave and bile rise in her throat, which she fought against as well. Her entire body was shaky and sweaty as the words spoken between the General and Kylo Ren reached her ears, and she felt a sort of déjà vu, especially upon watching them blurrily. She remembered her father.

“You won’t be able to stop us either, and your attempt to do so will end with your life, just like my father’s and like that old fool’s,” Ben spoke in a bitter tone with a nod to the man on the floor. Years of retreat and of hiding from the Force as well as old age had made him slower and weaker than ever. He grasped the side of his black mask and pushed it up and off of him, letting it fall wherever it wanted to land. She should look him in the eyes as he showed her who he truly was.

Leia felt only sadness, no anger or fear, as she looked at her son, hidden behind and underneath a black attire meant to make his affiliation clear, just like his grandfather, her father. It was a déjà vu for her as well. “Do you know why your grandfather became the way he was?” Leia questioned. “I have never condoned what he did and always will despise him for the decisions he made, but at least he had a reason, while you are just letting yourself be carried away by half-truths and little stories.”

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Ben yelled, but the look in his eyes and the slight crack, nearly inaudible, in his voice made it clear that she had hit a nerve.

"No, _you_ don't know what you're talking about!" Leia countered, nostrils flaring as she felt her anger well up again, and all of a sudden, temporarily ignoring Luke and Rey and focusing just on them, she felt stronger than him again, stronger than whatever they had done to her child, and she continued. "You try so hard not to feel, just the way he did... but you can't not. My father died because of love and any emotion associated with it, like fear. Fear of losing what you love. Fear of never having it."

Rey felt the throbbing headache in her temple slowly dissipate to a duller pain as she took in the words her mother spoke -- the full story she had always wanted to hear, especially since she discovered she was the granddaughter of the Darth Vader so many had feared. Her eyes fell on the way Ben's lightsaber shook in his hands, and fear gripped her that it might lead him to do something impulsive.

"Darth Vader was a very impulsive man, and mostly very stubborn. A Jedi is not supposed to love, but he loved so much. He refused to give up on being a Jedi, reeled in by a childlike curiosity to discover all of the Force. He refused to give up on love. He couldn't not love my mother, couldn't not be with her. Love clouded his judgment as a Jedi, and the Force clouded his judgment as a man, a husband and a father." Leia paused, tears filling her eyes as she remembered her own father wanting to kill her. She had been happy where she had grown up, hadn't needed Darth Vader, but once she discovered he was her father, a pain had settled in her heart -- a pain that had only deepened after bearing children herself and finding it even more ludicrous that you could ever not want the best for your children. "Maybe love makes us all weak in a way. For him, it made him incredibly afraid of losing to the point of driving him to insanity in the pull between the light and dark. He would do anything to keep your grandmother by his side. Yet the dark doesn't love. When she died, he gave up on believing in it and let himself be swallowed by the darkness entirely. I think you can't hate without having loved first, and I believe you are the best example. I know there is still love inside you, no matter how hard you try to deny that part of you..."

"I do not love!" Kylo Ren screamed, his face contorting in anger as he lifted his hand and made to stab his mother with anger, much the same way as he had killed his father.

Rey saw what was going to happen seconds before the lightsaber would have hit her, and reaching out with her hand, she pulled at the Force inside and around her and used it to slam her brother back against the opposite wall, the lightsaber weakening in his hand before falling to the floor, inches from his yearning hand as another wave of the Force flowed from Rey as she stood to her feet, only focused on her brother and not her mother's shocked eyes.

"You will not kill our other parent, too. You've done enough," she spat, looking over her shoulder as she heard thundering footsteps just before Finn and Poe appeared in the doorway, making for her, opening their mouths just as Ben took advantage of the half second she lost full control over the Force and grasped his lightsaber, using it to slash at her calve.

Crumbling from the intense pain it sent shooting up and down her leg, she lowered herself to the floor again, grasping the wounded area, watching through bleary eyes as Finn and Poe launched themselves at her brother, and she was scared for them, as they had no means of actual defense like he had, but also in too much pain to be able to help them. She was barely aware of the General lowering herself to her knees beside her and grasping her calve as well.

It was like watching a movie in slow motion, as then Ben, then Finn and Poe got the upper hand, the latter barely escaping a few well-directed stabs with the red glowing saber. She knew they wouldn't stay lucky that way, and she heaved air as she tried to pull the Force to her but couldn't, swallowed bile of effort. She kept watching the scene before her, trying to use it as a ways to force herself more, force herself better, like a ball rolling down the staircase, first slow, then faster and faster and more dangerously. Just as Finn and Poe jumped back further than ever to avoid fatal damage, the scene before her seemed to freeze and a cold wind whipped around her.

Looking around her to try and find the source, she saw Luke standing behind them, half-crumpled, one hand on his still-injured side, but the intensity in his blue eyes speaking volumes of how powerful he really was. "Stop trying to be someone you're not, Ben," he spoke in a somewhat breathless tone, still stronger than anyone in the room would have expected from him. "You're not him, and you don't have to be him either. You don't belong here, away from who you truly are."

It was then that the light won from the dark inside Kylo Ren, seeing the evidence before him of how strong you could be with the Force without being part of a people-killing opposition, of how love alone and lack of the force wouldn't necessarily give you a life where you had to miss something. He saw a hint of a possibility to be strong without having to force yourself not to feel in his sister. His little sister had mastered the combination better than he ever would, he realized, and he slumped to the floor in front of Leia and Rey, tears falling from his brown eyes. What had he done?

The lightsaber lay long forgotten as Leia grasped her son's hand and he grasped it back, to ensure he knew there was still a way back, and that is exactly what he needed.


End file.
